STS2 Gateway

Part of Ascension, the AI Ascension flagship toolkit. The repository slug remains sts2-gateway; the evidence language used by The Climb — by AI Ascension stays tied to the tests and runtime records named below.

AI-Ascension · tier 2: control plane · home of the public proof — In-memory control plane for game-host instances: lifecycle, one lease per instance with epoch fencing, and fixed routes.

Status: deterministic tests, the bounded attached-host runtime trace, the reviewed runtime-v3 Windows/Linux campaign path, and the serialized coop-native-v1 gateway boundary are confirmed for their recorded evidence · native two-peer settlement, general lifecycle, and broader compatibility remain unverified. Proof: 45-second browser replay · Evidence ledger · This repository on the map Proof source: crates/gateway/tests/control_plane.rs — the replay mirrors these tests. Owner: The gateway boundary owner is responsible for the lifecycle and routing control plane: instance records, leases and lease epochs, fencing, fixed forwarding policy, and cleanup. Contribute: Organization guide · First tasks

AI-Ascension is an independent project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mega Crit or Valve and grants no rights to game files, assets, or marks.

Status: Wave 2 POC plus bounded runtime-adapter proof. The target-owned gateway package provides a deterministic control-plane core and injected boundary ports; the separate runtime binary adds one attached loopback lane. Dated evidence confirms that lane through the exact recorded host and shows the runtime-v3 path carrying isolated Windows and Linux model-controlled campaigns to Defeat and fresh replays. Generic process supervision, multi-instance lifecycle, native multiplayer, and broader compatibility remain outside the demonstrated scope.

Owner and boundary

The sts2-gateway boundary owner is responsible for the external lifecycle and routing control plane: instance records, allocation, process ownership, readiness and health observation, authentication and authorization, leases and lease epochs, fencing, fixed forwarding policy, per-instance isolation, bounded backpressure, and cleanup.

Its intended consumers are the harness control coordinator and the thin MCP server adapter. The gateway may address an isolated sts2-game-mod process at runtime, but it does not import or own host, loader, game-rule, or game-state implementation. Operator and recovery clients are separate control-plane consumers. Runtime communication and compile-time dependencies are distinct; see the architecture.

The gateway does not own game rules, host objects, managed loader code, MCP semantics or tool catalogs, model/provider execution, harness episodes or artifacts, direct game files, saves, credentials, arbitrary proxying, or implicit remote discovery. It consumes only inert copied sts2-protocol/poc-v1, Runtime-v2, semantic Runtime-v3 gameplay, seeded-run-v1, and accepted coop-native-v1 artifacts. A forwarded request must have a validated instance, session, lease, lease epoch, route, method, and bounded body; listener reachability is not authentication. Runtime-v2 adds only the fixed end_turn operation and its retained receipt ledger, plus a typed state route that reports explicit unavailability without a host-state adapter. The Runtime-v2 fake settlement remains distinct from the later bounded Runtime-v3 host evidence.

The POC test allocates and readies fake instances, forwards a fixed command route, and proves that stale epochs and a proof from another instance are rejected before transport. It is a gateway control-plane test, not evidence that a game-mod process is running or that an action settled.

Evidence and provenance

This target is intentionally source/test bounded. The project policy and target decisions are normative for this repository. Existing planning material is used only as a structural and documentation exemplar. Planning and retained evidence are inputs labelled proposed, inferred, or unverified unless a controlled test establishes otherwise. No reference implementation source, proprietary game file, save, provider credential, or generated product output is copied here. The protocol artifact is copied as explicit release-like data only.

The current state is source-derived from this tree and its policy files, with confirmed deterministic fake-instance outcomes, a controlled component lane, an authorized exact-host runtime trace, and the read-only coop-synchronization-v1 executable profile. The latter reports gateway peer metadata and never authorizes game effects. Generic process startup/supervision, isolation under real concurrency, restart reconciliation, native multiplayer, and release behavior remain unverified. See the compatibility record and testing plan.

Local validation

Run these commands from this directory:

cargo run --locked --package repo-policy -- --strict
cargo fmt --all --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --all-features --locked -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace --all-targets --all-features --locked
(cd protocol-artifact/poc-v1 && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)
(cd protocol-artifact/runtime-v2 && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)
(cd protocol-artifact/runtime-v3-gameplay && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)
(cd protocol-artifact/seeded-run-v1 && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)
(cd protocol-artifact/runtime-map-v1 && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)
(cd protocol-artifact/runtime-v4-expert-rest-action && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)
(cd protocol-artifact/coop-native-v1 && sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS)

The first command is the local policy entrypoint and checks required paths, licenses, links, workflow restrictions, Rust configuration, language restrictions, and file budgets. The package tests exercise injected deterministic fakes and isolated synthetic loopback HTTP sockets; these commands do not launch a game process, MCP server, provider, or real host.

Repository map

• AGENTS.md is the target operating contract.
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md defines ownership, trust, and dependency direction.
• docs/PRODUCT.md defines the gateway product boundary and non-goals.
• docs/REPOSITORY_LAYOUT.md records the package and boundary layout.
• docs/TESTING.md records the deterministic package suite and future security tests.
• docs/decisions/0001-gateway-ownership-and-dependencies.md records gateway ownership and dependency rules.
• docs/decisions/0002-sixth-target-protocol-boundary.md records the current sixth-target protocol decision.
• docs/decisions/0019-runtime-v4-expert-rest-action-route.md records the candidate Runtime-v4 expert rest-action transport boundary.
• The staged gateway investigation prompt is a discovery input, not an implementation or runtime proof; it is maintained outside and is not copied into this repository.

Attached runtime slice

The target now includes the standalone sts2-gateway-runtime binary. It is a bounded, authenticated single-instance adapter for the first runtime slice: it exposes allocation, readiness, state, action, and release routes on loopback, validates the configured identity/lease/epoch/correlation fence, and forwards only the fixed runtime paths to an already attached mod listener. The MCP process reaches this binary over its real TCP adapter; the gateway does not accept arbitrary paths or headers.

This binary does not launch or supervise a game process in this sprint. Its fixed instance and attached downstream configuration are intentional for the vertical slice; the exact-host forwarding and lease path is confirmed in the dated authorized trace. General process lifecycle, multi-instance scheduling, restart reconciliation, and graceful shutdown remain unverified.

The Runtime-v3 profile validates the exact canonical artifact and correlated envelopes on six fixed routes. The attached binary's fixed-instance path was exercised by the dated Windows/Linux campaign and replay records through an already attached mod listener. It still has no lease TTL/renewal or durable boot-epoch rotation; see the explicit restart limitation in COMPATIBILITY.md. It cannot establish an autonomous run by itself without the harness and provider path.

The additive seeded-run-v1 gateway seam is present at current main 2b44bf347f790509c9f13378c89719d09366d45b. It exposes fixed instance-scoped start and read-only reconciliation routes, validates the selected native context and content-addressed digest, retains operation identity across correlation rebinding, and forwards only the fixed mod paths. Its copied artifact is schema digest 5c659f344be78f84e8d783986925d462714f933cac95d18943358992f7d3e2b8, aligned with protocol main d3ab5fca7d9d74bb31eeb3e5b343d8024ee44404. Component ledger/journal evidence does not prove native host settlement, profile/save isolation, provider execution, gameplay, or release compatibility. See ADR 0018.

The additive Runtime-v4 expert routes are also implemented and validate the checked-in expert-state and expert-action artifacts. Native host legality, settled effects, provider execution, and end-to-end compatibility remain unverified.

The exact Runtime-v4 source/component record is documented in the compatibility matrix.

Historical source/component update (2026-09-07): at exact gateway source head aecc9fa44c825623b3e3bbb21d130e1fe6ac9468, the settled Runtime-v4 expert response fence binds nested observation state_id and generation to the outer response, and the dispatch transition before_generation to the request generation. Independent checks passed 130 workspace tests, formatting, strict policy, Clippy, and three original regression cases. Native host legality, settled effects, provider execution, cross-consumer integration, deployment, and release remain unverified.

Current default-main source/component update (2026-09-10): gateway main 2b44bf347f790509c9f13378c89719d09366d45b contains the Runtime-v4 expert routes and the bounded map route. Its copied expert artifacts are aligned with protocol main d3ab5fca7d9d74bb31eeb3e5b343d8024ee44404 at schema digests 0ee034d5da83f34e9fa0ba23038738d56ef8cfccb1c6e752af3ab63d212c8e42 and 393318bda8c3522c0ecbacc78b95471a9f4dc3f825169d2048f4c74a7b7f2929. This is source/component evidence; native host legality, settled effects, provider execution, deployment, release, and live cross-consumer compatibility remain unverified.

For opt-in coordinator-reported synchronization, supply STS2_COOP_ROSTER as a JSON array, for example [{"peer_id":"local-1","role":"local"},{"peer_id":"ally-1","role":"ally"}]. The configured coordinator submits bounded peer reports under control scope; the separate MCP coop-synchronization-v1 profile reads agreement under read scope. All peers initially appear missing, and connected reports expire after thirty seconds. This feature reports coordination metadata and never authorizes gameplay. See the route and freshness contract.

The executable synchronization profile was separately exercised through the real gateway and MCP processes. It covered missing and partial reports, generation agreement and disagreement, disconnect/recovery, stale leases, and rejected unknown or regressing reports, with zero downstream game connections. This is coordinator-report transport evidence only: it does not establish native peer identity, shared game actions/effects, or multiplayer gameplay. See the MCP executable evidence.

The additive runtime-map-v1 route exposes a bodyless GET /v1/instances/{instance_id}/map-snapshot request and forwards only the fixed downstream map snapshot path. It validates the corrected visible-map artifact, identity/generation fence, bounded graph, and independent navigation bindings before returning data. The route is source/component evidence; live map freshness and visualizer rendering remain unverified. See ADR 0017.

The additive game-information-query-v1 transport exposes fixed authenticated capabilities and the canonical POST /v1/instances/{instance_id}/game-information/query envelope (plus additive operation-specific aliases). Static reads bind to configured content; live reads bind to instance/run/lease-epoch/snapshot scope. A successful capabilities response is required for the current producer authority before a query; advertised operations and negotiated limits are enforced before forwarding, and caller disconnect cancels owned producer work. The gateway forwards only the fixed operation-specific producer path, applies bounded request/response/item/page/text/cursor and existing queue/timeout controls, preserves typed producer errors, and implements no response cache. This is gateway source/component evidence pinned to protocol source 34f68b182c09472c3a0573ff478e17e6ed53c91f at schema digest 376845b0c86b4afcd2c79ffba753eb7e7e416f5410da26b4dae970cfee2221d9; native producer, snapshot freshness, MCP consumers (#51/#52), harness, deployment, and release remain unverified. See ADR 0024.

The candidate runtime-v4-expert-rest-action-v1 profile adds fixed authenticated dispatch and read-only reconciliation routes for native rest-site options and selector follow-up actions. The gateway validates the exact candidate artifact, forwards only the fixed mod paths, and retains selector catalogs so completed choices must have prior admission context. The two serialized producer-shaped lifecycles and 22 mutation fixtures are deterministic source/component evidence; the profile remains unadmitted and does not establish a native producer, host effect, MCP or harness consumer, deployment, or release compatibility. See ADR 0019.

Current default-main source/component map update (2026-09-10): gateway main 2b44bf347f790509c9f13378c89719d09366d45b contains the bounded map route and its copied runtime-map-v1 artifact. The producer pin is merged protocol main d3ab5fca7d9d74bb31eeb3e5b343d8024ee44404 at schema digest ceab0d2dfc471d1ec36d12edaf4654b8c7fdced06548bf47265e11c63f98115b. This records current source/component identity and copied-artifact scope; live map freshness, native map visibility, navigation, gameplay, release, and publication remain unverified.

The accepted coop-native-v1 gateway consumer is present at the current source head. It exposes fixed observation, legal-catalog, local-action, shared-vote, peer-rejoin, and same-operation recovery routes under /v1/instances/{instance_id}/coop/native/. The copied schema digest is 2f3bc99e53080fa11b39592b64fb0ab964a16f568719a2622d0b2caf766ab629; the consumer checks closed envelopes, duplicate members, caller and lease identity, operation lineage, catalog/effect/receipt relations, settled generations, and recovery kind before forwarding to the six fixed mod paths. This is source/component and synthetic transport evidence. Native peer admission, host settlement, two-peer gameplay, checksum convergence, provider execution, deployment, and release compatibility remain unverified. See ADR 0021.